I've managed to get in a couple of Toronto Film Festival flicks this year.

Thursday, I saw Linda Linda Linda with Sarah. It was a great, fun movie and sent me home, humming the tune. I find Japanese movies so delightfully awkward. They're not afraid to just point the camera at a shy girl hanging her head, mumbling "mm".

Tonight I saw House of Sand.

What a fantastic film.
The Brazilian director, Andrucha Waddington, was there to answer questions. It was a fascinating road to that movie - years in the making. And you can see that it was made with a lot of care.

A quick synopsis, if you don't care to read it at the TIFF website, is that it's about 3 generations of women trapped in the unhospitable sand dunes of Brazil.

What's touched me about the film was the theme.

The main character spends years desperately trying to get back to civilization. One day, when her chance has escaped for the second time, she suddenly comes to an acceptance of her lot and finds contentedness.

After about 60 years in relative isolation from the world, she's told that man has landed on the moon. Incredulous, she asks what they found there.

"Nothing. Sand."

One can spend a lifetime trying to be somewhere else, looking for something better or different - or just anything other than where they are and who they're with. And even if they reach that goal, it is often not any better than what they left behind.

It doesn't matter whether you have new clothes, make that promotion or record, or even if you know what's going on in the world.

None of these things are useful in the true sense. One could (and people do) live quite blissfully without them. In fact, one could argue, more blissfully.

All you need is a simple life with people who love you.

Why have I been chasing something more?